An MTC bus conductor was hacked to death at a TASMAC shop in Poonamallee on Thursday evening.
Police said the victim, Ranjan (42), a resident of NSK Nagar, Arumbakkam, had been on bad terms with some people in his locality, and this is suspected to have led to the killing. The brutal attack took place around 3.30 p.m., when Ranjan stepped into the bar on Poonamallee Bypass Road close to the Poonamallee bus depot.
Seven men on three motorcycles, armed with knives and sickles, came to the depot in search of Ranjan and spotted him walking into the bar. Ranjan saw his attackers and tried to flee but the gang rounded him up after blocking the entrance and exit of the bar. People inside the bar fled, while the gang hacked him to death inside a bathroom in the bar and left immediately, police added.
A team from the Poonamallee police station located few metres from the site of the murder arrived and carried out a preliminary probe. “Ranjan and his two brothers were involved in the murder of a man named Haneef in September 2011 in Arumbakkam. Ranjan was released from prison in September 2012 and had moved to a house in Poonamallee fearing an attack from Haneef’s relatives,” said an investigating officer. He added that Ranjan was an active member of the MTC’s Anna trade union.
Poonamallee police have registered a case of murder and are on the lookout for the gang.
